Over the summer, I had the privilege of touring Shaw Floors headquarters as one of their Style Board bloggers. It was an amazingly fun and educational experience, and I came away from the trip with a whole new appreciation of the time, talent, creativity, technology, and care that goes into creating quality flooring. If you happened to miss that post, click here to see the tour of Shaw Floors.
As one of Shaw Floor’s Style Board members, I get to choose a certain amount of flooring for my home this year through a sponsored relationship with Shaw. Matt and I have been wanting to replace the decade old carpet on our second level for some time now, so I couldn’t be more thrilled! That poor carpet has been through two toddlers, three dogs, and an unfortunate lizard heat lamp incident (don’t ask). It’s definitely showing it’s age and needs an update. Shaw offered four different flooring products for us to choose from: Floorte´waterproof vinyl flooring, LifeGuard™ waterproof carpet, the cut-a-rug program which allows you to bind carpet to create a custom area rug, or engineered Epic Plus hardwood flooring.
Let’s explore each flooring option and then at the end of the post please weigh in with your opinion to help me make my final decision!
Option 1: Floorte´ Waterproof Vinyl Flooring
During the Shaw Floors tour, I was so impressed with the look, feel, and performance of the Floorte´vinyl flooring! I think it would be amazing to have in a mudroom, laundry room, basement, playroom, or anywhere you want the look of hardwoods with the durability of a vinyl. The installation seems easy enough for any avid DIY’er and most importantly it’s waterproof! Our laundry room is on the second floor and a few years ago our washing machine decided to flood, causing major drywall damage. Waterproof carpet or vinyl flooring would have saved us thousands in drywall repair.
Option 2: LifeGuard™ Waterproof Carpet
Getting to spill glasses of “wine” on the LifeGuard™ Waterproof Carpet was a highlight of my Shaw Floors tour! It was fun to be able to make a mess that disappeared in an instant with just a swab of a paper towel. 🙂 And by the way, when they say waterproof carpet they really mean waterproof–not just water resistant. My friend Brooke from All Things Thrifty recently made a pool using Shaw Floor’s LifeGuard™ Carpet and not a drop leaked through. You read that right. She made a SWIMMING POOL out of carpet! You can see her kids swimming in the carpet lined pool here.
Spills and accidents happen. In fact my sister Kim called me just yesterday upset that her teenage daughter had left a full glass of cranberry juice in her room which accidentally knocked over, staining the carpet. Can you imagine the freedom of not having to stress over spills and dog accidents? This little guy is pretty good about keeping any accidents to a minimum, but he is really pushing for Option 2. He’s never met a plush rug or carpet that he didn’t love!
Option 3: Cut a Rug Program
Shaw’s Cut-A-Rug™program allows you to create completely custom rugs for your home. You pick the color, style, size, shape, and border that is perfect for your space. I would love to create custom stair runners for our stairs at some point!
Option 4: Epic Plus Engineered Hardwood
Epic Plus is the most durable, impact-resistant hardwood on the market and comes in so many amazing colors that at this point it is literally haunting my dreams at night! How do you choose just one? Spoiler alert: I’ve decided to go with Option 4, and we will be installing Epic Plus flooring on our second level! However, choosing a color has proved to be so difficult!
I visited ShawFloors.com and set up an account so that I could save all of the samples that caught my eye. I’m apparently a maple girl. Every single picture that caught my eye happened to be maple!
Next, I ordered a bunch of samples of flooring so that I could see and touch each one. Out of the samples I ordered, I narrowed it down to three strong contenders but felt like I needed to visit a showroom to see more samples up close.
I’m attracted to gray-toned wood, but Matt prefers a clear brown. He knows that grays are trendy right now and believes they will fade in popularity in a few years. He’s most likely right! We both agree that we want something moderately rustic that doesn’t have a lot of orange or red hues. I pulled a few more contenders from my local showroom display.
I focused on the left-side of each swatch as we are wanting a medium-toned wood for our second level.
After much hemming, and hawing, and facetiming my sister, and texting fellow blogger friends, here are the narrowed down contenders!
1. Fairbanks Maple in Buckskin
This *might* be the winner. It is warm, rustic, and not too dark.
2. Essex Maple in Caramel
I like this one too but it may be a tad too rustic for our space.
3. Bennington Maple in Highway
This was the first sample I saw in a local showroom and the first to catch my eye! The only thing I’m unsure about with this flooring is the mix widths. The other options come in 5″ planks and this option only comes in mix-width planks. I’m just not sure the mix-widths are right for our space, but I do love the color and feel of the Bennington Maple!
You can’t tell as well from the previous pictures, but this flooring has a lot of gray tones to it which I love. Here is the sample placed on top of my breakfast nook table that I recently refinished. I love the finish I created on my table, so it’s no wonder that I am drawn to the Bennington Maple in Highway!
4. Awesome Maple in Bison or Buckskin
Awesome Maple in Bison is just gorgeous. It’s dark and rich and beautifully distressed! However, it looks so much darker in my poorly lit space than it does in full-sunshine or in these pictures. If the rooms on my second floor received more natural light, I think this would be the winner.
Awesome Maple Buckskin
I didn’t get a sample of the Awesome Maple in Buckskin, but I have other maple samples in Buckskin and love the color. I think the slightly lighter color would look fantastic in our space.
Phew! There are all of my options. Honestly, I kind of feel like I can’t go wrong no matter which one I choose but I’d love to hear which one YOU like best! Tell me your favorite in the comments.
This post is sponsored by Shaw Floors. All the ideas and information I share is my own viewpoint.
Meredith Locker says
#1!!! Love it!
Marty@A Stroll Thru Life says
#1 for sure. It is so close to the color I just had installed and I love it. I can use orange tones, red tones- yellow or gray and they all go. It really does make a difference.
Some of the wood tones look really bad with reds oranges grays or even yellows. Then there is also how Blue shines or dies with them. I like #1, really neutral and can go with anything.
Beth says
Thanks for weighing in Marty! #1 is a very strong contender right now!